All, For the past few days there has been an upper level low pressure system spinning about over the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys. This feature is cut off from the main polar jet stream current which is flowing across Canada see https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/isobaric/250hPa/orthographic=-88.35,51.52,650 The effect of this is rain south of NY from Ohio to the Carolinas. For the past few mornings, I have looked at the radar echoes and our area and much of the northeast U.S has seen modest radar echoes. BUT south of us, there has been little migration as detected by radar. This mean there is a net flux of birds *out of our area*. Indeed, I have noticed a major drop in white-crowned sparrows and white-throated sparrows to a point that I have none left at my feeders. A few days ago, they were abundant, especially white-throated sparrows. Fortunately, forecast models show this upper level low does get kicked out by another upper level feature by Saturday and then the door opens up. From Sunday to Tuesday morning, there will be a nice southwest flow in the lower atmosphere from the Gulf of Mexico up through the Ohio Valley to the northeast with warmer temperatures. Red-eyed vireos are still not that common down here in Broome Co. and Scarlet tanagers are not up to normal numbers yet! I suspect the rest of these and other later common species will make their arrivals early next week. I hope the later migrant birds that breed north of us don't just overfly our area! That could happen...
This has been the slowest evolving May that I can remember going way back to the 1990s. Temperatures at the Binghamton airport for May are averaging 5.4 degrees below normal. The leaves on our oak trees are really delayed and just budding now and our maples down here in the southern tier are finally started to show some light green. This is way behind normal years where leaf out is rapid by now and almost complete. Anyway, warmer times are ahead and I hope you all can get out and enjoy the coming long weekend! Best, Dave Nicosia -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
